Image of Broadleaf wild leek

Description:

Slo.: poletni luk - Habitat: grassland, skeletal karst ground, calcareous bedrock; open, sunny, warm, dry place; elevation 70 m (230 feet); average precipitations 1.500-1.600 mm/year, average temperature 12-13 deg C, submediterranean phytogeographical region. - Substratum: soil. - Comment: Genus Allium in Europe includes well over 100 species (Ref.:5), 25 species and subspecies can be found in Slovenia. All plants in this genus have quite similar habit and they have the same characteristic smell on onion or garlic. Most of them are edible. Their determination to species level is not always simple due to the fact that specific traits of leaves and flowers are important. Unfortunately, with most of the species the leaves are already weathered away when the plants bloom. One can almost never see leaves and flowers at the same time. Consequently, most of traditional dichotomous keys are hardly usable. The best books (like Ref.:6) provide two keys, one based on leaves only properties and another one based on flower properties.Allium ampeloprasum is a Mediterranean floral element relatively seldom found in Slovenia. It is restricted to the warmest parts of the country near Adriatic Sea. Its beautiful round inflorescence may have up to 9 cm in diameter and contain up to 500 individual flowers. The cultivated leek is believed to be derived from this species.Ref.:(1) A. Martini et all., Mala Flora Slovenije (Flora of Slovenia - Key) (in Slovenian), Tehnina Zaloba Slovenije (2007), p 743. (2) M. Blamey, C. Grey-Wilson, Wild Flowers of the Mediterranean, A & C Black, London (2005), p 487(3) D. Aeschimann, K. Lauber, D.M. Moser, J.P. Theurillat, Flora Alpina, Vol. 2., Haupt (2004), p 1066.(4) R. Domac, Flora Hrvatske (Flora of Croatia) (in Croatian), kolska Knjiga, Zagreb (1994), p 393.(5) M.A. Fischer, W. Adler, K. Oswald, Exkursionsflora fr sterreich, Liechtenstein und Sdtirol, LO Landesmuseen, Linz, Austria (2005), p 1061.